哈佛商學院面試內幕

For two full weeks before his MBA admissions interview at Harvard Business School, Alex Kleiner would mull over a list of potential questions every night before going to bed. He drove up to Boston on a Sunday from his parents' home in Connecticut the night before his scheduled session with an HBS admissions official.
哈佛商學院（Harvard Business School，簡稱HBS）的MBA招生面試前整整兩週，亞歷克斯•克萊納每天晚上睡覺前都反覆琢磨着一份可能被問到的問題清單。週日，和HBS招生官員約好的面試前一天晚上，他從康涅狄格州的父母那裏驅車來到波士頓。

On the Monday morning just after the Thanksgiving Day holiday, Kleiner slipped on a dark navy suit, a blue shirt, conservative tie, and black shoes. “Nothing too flashy,” he recalls. And then he reported to a small room at Dillon House where two women sat opposite him. One asked the questions, and one feverishly scribbled notes.
次日早上，那天剛過完感恩節，克萊納穿上了深藍色西裝、藍色襯衫、保守的領帶以及黑皮鞋。他回憶說：“穿着上沒有特別浮華的東西。”接着他到狄倫樓的一個小房間報道，屋內有兩位女士坐在他對面。一位負責提問，另一位奮筆疾書，做着記錄。

Over the next 30 minutes, he received only one question for which he wasn't completely ready for: “What was your proudest moment in college?”
接下來的30分鐘裏，所有的問題中只有一個是他完全沒有準備的：“你在大學裏最自豪的時刻是什麼時候？”

“It caught me off guard because all the questions I had received until then I had prepared for,” recalls Kleiner.
“這個問題讓我措手不及，因爲在這之前的所有問題我都有所準備，”克萊納回憶說。

After all, it had been nearly four years since Kleiner graduated from Yale University with an undergraduate degree in history. Since then, he had worked for two years as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in New York and for two more years in private equity at Vector Capital in San Francisco.
畢竟，那時距離卡萊納從耶魯大學（Yale University）畢業，拿到歷史學學士學位，已經有將近4年的時間了。畢業後，他在紐約的美林證券（Merrill Lynch）從事了兩年的投資銀行業務，然後去舊金山的私募股票公司Vector Capital工作了兩年。

He told the HBS admissions staffers how, as president and captain of the university's club ice hockey team, he helped to organize a match against Johns Hopkins University to commemorate the first collegiate ice hockey game ever played.
他對HBS的招生人員講述了當年身爲大學冰上曲棍球隊的主席和隊長的一段經歷，那時他幫助組織了一場對陣約翰霍金斯大學（Hopkins University）的比賽，以紀念第一場大學間冰球比賽。

“It went by in the blink of an eye,” recalls Kleiner. “I walked out thinking it had only begun a couple of seconds earlier. But I felt I had done a good job getting my points across. It was actually pretty comforting. Both people were kind and receptive and engaged in our conversation. The second person didn't speak but she would nod and make facial expressions to let me know she was listening to my answers.”
“轉眼間我的面試就結束了，”克萊納回憶說。“走出去的時候我覺得才過了幾秒鐘，但我認爲我表現不錯，很好地表達了我的觀點。這實際上挺令人欣慰的。兩位面試官都挺友好，善於接受觀點，對我們的對話中也很投入。第二位面試官雖然沒有說話，但她通過點頭以及面部表情向我表示，她在仔細聽我的回答。”

Soon enough, Kleiner would be offered a seat in Harvard's class of 2014. Now, as editor-in-chief of The Harbus, the MBA student newspaper, the 28-year-old has found himself leading a team of students who have just published the latest “Unofficial Harvard Business School Interview Guide”.
克萊納很快成爲哈佛大學2014屆的一名學生。現在，作爲MBA校刊The Harbus的主編，他帶領一組同學刊登了最新版的《哈佛商學院面試非正式指南》（Unofficial Harvard Business School Interview Guide）。

The newest edition of the guide has been substantively revised and updated -- and, at 68 pages long, (up from just 40 pages last year) is the largest ever published by The Harbus. The question that surprised Kleiner -- along with advice on how to approach an answer -- is among 96 questions revealed in the guide. All of those questions come from current students who successfully navigated the HBS admissions process. “We try in our analysis to give insight to what the admissions committee is after for each question,” adds Kleiner.
最新版的指南在以前的基礎上做了本質的修訂和更新——篇幅長達68頁（去年的版本只有40頁），是The Harbus史上出版的最長的面試指南。之前面試中最讓克萊納驚訝的問題，以及怎樣回答這個問題的建議，正是指南所刊登的96個問題之一。所有這些問題都是由成功通過HBS招生過程的學生提供的真題。克萊納還說：“我們在分析中深度剖析招生委員會提出的每個問題的目的。”

In addition to the questions, which range from the most obvious to the highly unpredictable, the $65 guide contains a new section offering the best general admissions advice from successful HBS applicants. (The money made from the guide goes to support the foundation that publishes The Harbus newspaper). Kleiner and his MBA colleagues, for example, tossed in a section on timing, urging applicants to give themselves at least two months to study for the GMAT and three months to complete the HBS application alone.
除了這些最常見的以及完全無法預測的問題，這本售價65美元的指南還增加了一個章節，介紹了成功通過面試的HBS申請人給出的最佳面試心得。（這本指南的所有收入用於支持The Harbus的刊發基金。）克萊納和他的MBA同學還開了一個時間安排章節，敦促申請者至少用兩個月時間準備研究生管理專業入學考試（GMAT），三個月時間單獨完成HBS申請。The questions, or at least the nearly 100 shared in the guide, cover a fairly vast range of issues and experiences that could easily trip up a candidate. Consider: “What is the most interesting conversation you have had this week?” or “Tell me a piece of news that you are currently following and very interested in?” The latter question is the motivation for the advice to begin a new morning routine on the day you schedule your admissions interview. “Browse all the headlines of all the major business news sites, read any stories that seem particularly pertinent, and be sure to hit up any sites that cover your industry and employer in particular (you don't want to get broadsided during your interview!).”
這些問題，或者至少是指南里所列出的近100個問題，涵蓋了大範圍的話題和經歷，輕易就能絆倒候選人。比如：“你這周所有的對話中最有趣的是哪個？”或是“跟我講一個你目前在跟進並且非常感興趣的新聞。”正是根據後一個問題，這份指南建議申請者從計劃招生面試的那天開始實行一個新的每日晨間安排：“瀏覽所有主流商業新聞網站的頭條，閱讀看上去相當重要的所有報道，然後確保看過所有關於你所在行業的報道，特別是你所在公司的網站（在面試時你不該表現得太空泛！）。”

For Kleiner, the admissions interview worked backwards. “I was asked about my time at my current job and what I liked about it. Then, I was asked about my experience in investment banking before that. She asked why I switched to private equity from banking. I had prepared for that and gave my answer and then we kept going backwards. We started talking a lot about Yale and my experiences there, including why I majored in history and whether I got out of it what I wanted.”
對克萊納而言，他的招生面試是逆序進行的。“面試官先問我現在的工作做了多久，喜歡它的哪些方面。接着，她問我在這之前的投行工作經歷。她問我爲什麼從銀行轉到私募股權公司。對這個問題我有所準備，然後我們接着往前談。我們聊了許多關於耶魯和我在耶魯的經歷，包括我爲什麼學習歷史專業以及我是否從中得到了預期的收穫。”

As far as he is concerned, the most challenging questions are those that ask you “to brag a little bit or to be introspective. It's not always easy to sit in front of an interviewer and say that to them. The whole interview is crammed into 30 minutes and it is really rapid fire. You don't get much of a reaction to your answers because they're trying to fit in as many questions as possible. It can be very tough for a lot of people, especially those who haven't interviewed for two or three years since they went through the process to get their last job.”
對他而言，最有挑戰性的問題是那些讓你“稍微自誇一下或者自省一下。要坐在面試官面前，對他們侃侃而談這些問題並不容易。整個面試是30分鐘，問題一個一個接踵而至。由於面試官想提儘可能多的問題，所以你沒太多時間去考慮自己的答案。這對許多人來說都很艱難，尤其是對那些兩三年裏沒有換過工作的人，他們最近一次面試還是在獲得那份工作的時候。

Questions on leadership often absorb a good chunk of the interview time. “They definitely ask you a lot of questions on leadership,” says Kleiner. “What kind of leader are you? What is your definition of a leader and how might you fit that description? Have you worked with any truly exceptional leaders in your last job and tell me why you thought they were great?”
關於領導力的問題通常也是面試的一大部分。“他們絕對會問你許多關於領導力的問題，”克萊納說。“你是什麼類型的領導？你對領導的定義是怎樣的，而你自己該怎樣去達到這個定義的要求？在你的上一份工作中，是否跟真正非凡的領導共事過？請說出爲什麼你覺得他們很出色？”

The most unpredictable question in the guide this year? Kleiner has a few favorites that fit that description, including, “Explain something to me as if I were an eight-year-old.”
今年的指南里最無法預測的問題是哪個？克萊納有幾個答案，包括“假設我是一個8歲的小孩，請向我解釋一件事，能讓我聽懂。”

“It's a funny one that comes up commonly,” he says. “The point of this question is to see if you are ready to participate in the case method at HBS. Your own thoughts, however complicated, may have to be explained to 90 people in a classroom, some of whom may be experts in a field and others who may be novices. So they are testing all of that in a very simple question. It's a really good skill to have.”
“這個有趣的問題經常被問到，”他說。“問題的關鍵在於看你是否準備好去接受HBS的案例分析法。你自己的想法，無論多複雜，可能都要解釋給一個班90個學生。有些人是某個領域的專家，其他人卻可能還是新手。所以他們用這個非常簡單的方法去測試學生的這一能力。學會這個技能非常有用。”

Another common question: “Tell me something you want to start doing, something you want to do more of, and something you want to do less of.”
另一個常見的問題是：“跟我說一件你想開始着手做的事，再說一件你想做得更多的事，以及一件你希望少做點的事。”

“Professors often ask for similar feedback from their students,” says Kleiner. “It's a chance for you to step out and give an honest appraisal of who you are. It forces you to be more concrete than a more typical strength and weakness question.”
“教授也經常讓學生提供類似的反饋，”克萊納說。“這對你來說是一次機會，你可以站出來，誠實地評估自己。比起典型的優缺點問題，它要求你表達得更具體。”

The guide divides questions into six categories: experience, current events, leadership, situational, career, and curriculum. There also are sections to make your visit to Boston productive: lists of where to go and where to eat, where to shop and where to stay.
這本指南把問題分成6個部分：經歷型、當前事件型、領導力、情景問題、事業以及課程。同時，指南還提供了一些章節，可以讓你的波士頓之行更有成效：去哪裏、到哪裏吃東西，在哪購物和住在哪的清單。

And, of course, there is the requisite advice on what to wear: For women, the guide recommends a suit color and style that is simple and classic. “Skirt lengths need to be at least knee length,” the editors counsel. “Wear closed toed pumps and a heel height of one-to-three inches.” For men, the guidance is Esquire-esque: “Make sure the suit fits properly. Ask a tailor (or your mom).... Suit color palate for the formal interview: black, gray, or navy blue. You may choose plain or (sensible) pinstripes. Reserved sport coat also works, though a good suit is fail-safe.”
當然，對穿着的建議也不可或缺：女士着裝，指南建議顏色爲西裝顏色，款式建議簡潔經典。“裙子的長度至少要及膝，”編輯們建議說。“鞋子應是高跟的包鞋，鞋跟高度爲1至3英尺。”男士建議穿紳士款式的西裝：“確保套裝合身。向裁縫或你母親諮詢一下……正式面試時穿着的顏色應爲：黑、灰或海軍藍。你可以選擇單色或（有品的）條紋色。雖然一套好的西裝能確保萬無一失，備用的運動外套也是可以的。”

Kleiner says he relied heavily on the guide to help him prepare for the interview. “I formulated a list of questions, using the interview guide as a starting point. Then, I added more specific questions based on my application and resume. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I would think about them and what my answers would be before I went to bed every night.”
克萊納說，他的面試準備大量依賴於指南。“我從面試指南入手，列出了一個問題清單。然後根據我自己的申請和簡歷，加入了更具體的問題。在幾周的過程裏，我每天睡覺前都會思考這些問題以及我的答案。”

So when it came to the sit down for his session, he felt prepared. “As it came to the end, I didn't get an opportunity to ask questions,” he recalls. “But they gave me the last word. ‘What is one thing you want to convey as your interview comes to an end?' I said that ‘I really want to come to Harvard. This is my first choice. This is where I see myself.'” Indeed.
所以當坐下來面試的時候，他覺得準備已經很充足了。“直到快結束的時候，我還沒有機會問問題，”他回憶到。“不過她們的最後一個問題是‘在面試結束前，你還有什麼想補充的？請說其中一件事。'我說：‘我真的很想到哈佛學習。這裏是我的第一選擇，我能在這兒看到未來。'”確實如此。